5 Steps to Efficiently Plan Content for Your Small Business

Ready to grow your business through social media but not really sure how to plan your social media content? I’ve got five easy steps to help you master content creation and share strategic, intentional content your audience will love!

Social media is a fabulous (and mostly FREE) way to grow your business. It’s worth it to take content creation seriously and to approach your content marketing with a plan. I’ve had great success with my system of pre-planning my content and it’s made a big difference in my business. This process will take an hour or two, so make sure you prioritize the time to really sit down and work through it. If you have little ones at home consider having someone watch your kids or waiting until they go to bed so you have a chunk of uninterrupted time to concentrate.

Step 1: Brain Dump

Set a timer for 30-45 minutes and do a complete brain dump of all of your business ideas, strategies, goals, and knowledge. Include everything, even things that feel silly or out of reach. Once you have that all written out, look over your list and see what categories emerge. How are some of the items related? 

Group your ideas into categories. An easy way to sort them is to choose different colored pens or highlighters and assign a color to each category! You’ll also want to make note of any ideas that are best suited to a specific season or holiday. 

✅Note: one of my most favorite ways to group up content (after a “brain dump” session) is by grouping it all together on a Trello board (a project management tool I use daily).

Step 2: Choose Your Platform

Look over your ideas and determine the two (or three if you’re feeling ambitious) platforms that will work best with your content. These platforms will be the bulk of how you share your ideas and advice with your audience. Don’t overwhelm yourself! If you’re starting from scratch, choose a platform you’re already familiar with. Facebook and Instagram are my reliable go-to’s!

Your platform will be based on your business goals. If your number one goal is to drive blog traffic, Pinterest should probably be your primary platform. If you’re more focused on sharing video content, Instagram (stories and IGTV) or Facebook (Facebook Live) would be better options.

If you have a website, dig into Google Analytics and see what top channels are driving traffic to your website (My top three are as follows: Facebook, Pinterest, & Instagram Stories) So based on data, I am creating content for those social media platforms (not feelings-but actual data!)

Step 3: Choose Your Topics

Remember that brain dump from Step 1? Now we’re going to dig into those ideas and find content that will resonate with your audience. Look at each idea and try to break it down into bite-sized pieces to share.

For example, if one of your ideas was “time management tips” you could break that out into more specific topics: using an app to track your work time, time blocking, how to prioritize tasks, how to effectively use a planner, minimizing distractions, the importance of taking breaks and so on. That one idea is now at least six different posts!

With your content, remember that done is always better than perfect. Just remember to inject your personality into what you are sharing! And always have someone else read what you write before you post, especially for longer pieces like blogs. If you have the resources to outsource some of your content, consider hiring an expert copywriter to take over some of your writing tasks. (I use Emily Writes Well to help me with my copywriting purposes!) 

Choose your topics and write out your content for a month at a time. Sitting down to plan in one big chunk will help you work faster and will take away the stress of trying to plan content on the fly every day. Now that I’m seasoned at this process, I actually plan out my content for three months at a time!

Step 4: Be Consistent

Consistency is super important regardless of the platform you choose to use. Determine how many times a week you are going to post to these platforms, and make it a priority to stick to your schedule. There’s no need to be on your phone 24/7, but you should try to carve out thirty minutes a day to engage with your audience and respond to messages.

Just a note: I suggest sticking to your desktop computer for answering emails. I believe it’s unprofessional to answer an email from your phone, and you always want your clients to take you seriously.

To help with your consistency, there are many ways you can recycle and reuse content over the course of a month. I blog four to eight times a month, but I then use the content from my blogs to create Instagram posts, Facebook posts and I even create graphics for my Pinterest. A great blog can easily become a killer IG TV post! You don’t have to constantly come up with new ideas if you’re strategic with your existing content. (Big shout-out to Amy Porterfield for teaching me this amazing trick!) 

Step 5: Stick with It

Don’t start and stop with different platforms! If you hop from place to place, you’ll never develop a dedicated audience. Growth and progress take time (as all good things do) and you need to commit to your platform and see it out over the long haul. If you move from Instagram to Facebook to Snapchat to YouTube, you’ll waste a lot of time figuring out each new platform and you won’t actually see any growth or leads. 

Be responsible to your chosen platform(s) and nurture your audience. Respond to questions, comments, and DMs. Interact with other people’s posts. Be social! 

Pre-planning your content takes some time upfront, but it is so worth it! Now that I’m a mom, I need the flexibility planning ahead offers me. If my son is sick or needs my attention, I don’t have to worry about falling behind on my social media marketing. There’s no stress and all of my content is intentional and purposeful. 

My goal is to help uplift, encourage and support other fellow entrepreneurs who are either just starting out with a new business or are moms trying to juggle owning a business and raising a tiny human at the same time! I am here to serve you and to show you the joy in automating your small (but mighty) business! Connect with me on Instagram and let me know how these tips helped you or ask any specific questions about my process!

Resources

• Creative Calendar: https://katschmoyer.com/how-i-use-my-creatives-calendar-for-business/
• How to plan your entire week on a digital calendar (with Elizabeth McCravy): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/046-how-to-plan-your-entire-week-on-a-digital-calendar/id1454592742?i=1000461210182
• Book: Atomic Habits (James Clear)
• Book: 168 Hours (Lauren Vanderkam)
• Anything by the talented Amy Porterfield: https://www.amyporterfield.com/

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Meet Your Friendly Nashville Branding Photographer & Business Systems Educator

Dolly DeLong is a Nashville-based family & branding photographer and a creative business owner who educates on all things Pinterest, Dubsado, Lead Magnets & Email Marketing (aka pretty much all the fun automation stuff centered around those business systems)!  Dolly loves serving families, and business owners with her timeless, radiant photography.  She loves capturing the joy and emotion in both digital and film photos.

She also has a heart for serving the larger business community. Dolly shares her knowledge of tools like Pinterest, Dubsado, email marketing, and business systems with new creative business owners in an encouraging and supportive way because she believes that even muggles can become automating wizards!

Dolly’s faith and love for her family motivate her to help other business owners find the joy and freedom she’s found in running a successful small business.

Whenever she has a spare moment, she enjoys watching TV (i.e. Survivor), loves eating way too many sweets, and listens to podcasts while running or walking. To work with Dolly DeLong Photography LLC, please email her at thedollydelong@gmail.com or fill out her contact form here.

Interested in learning how to best automate your small business but have NO clue where to start? Click here (or on the image below) to get started with learning the foundations of automating your content! 

➡️Or if you are ready to LEVEL UP your Business with Strategic Workflows & Content Creation Check out my strategic content creation Masterclass Today!